This tire got me interested firstly on looks. Wide lateral shoulder blocks and plenty of sipes. Having used several other winter tire brands in the past and a interest in winter tire development I thought I'd give them a try. Regular driving is satisfactory wet or dry but the hs449 come into its
Own up the hills through Derbyshire in around 4/5inchs of fresh snow and slush. The ford puma needs all the help it can get in snow and the hs449 worked better for me than previous high end brands I have tried.

I have these on my Mercedes SUV. Best winter tire I have ever bought. Great on dry roads, fabulous on snow and ice. They grab the road no matter what the condition is. Tread wear is excellent.

Fantastic tires, I run them on BMW 120d rear wheel drive from October to April and I've never been stuck. Excellent in the dry, wet, ice and snow. An essential when figures are below 7degrees c. Couldn't ask for more from these tires, would buy again for sure.

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I bought my car Skoda Superb ( 2wd ) already with this tires . 225/40R18 So i decided to used them . I often travel to the mountains where I have notice even with a small amount of snow on the road really terrible grib . I read that DSG transmision isn t best solution for the snow and front power wheels. . But even on flat surface i break traction immediately , when you get goin is ok , but when i drove up the hill on snowy normal country road i had many problems passing thru. And I m really talkin about small hills. You need a lot of speed , non brakin , goin side ways on turns with ESP off every time to maybe pass it. But the moment you stop uphill on "white " road you done .

This is really good tire for the city and some normal road trips . If you use it as most of people do you probable won t understand what i m talkin about.
So if you drive on snow maybe up to 5 times a year and mostly in the city . That s really good tire for average price.
On dry surface again if you used normally you won t notice loose of traction . Good in fast turns .
These same thing on wet road it s really stable.
It s just not the the tire for snow :) .

I can easily use it for two more winter season , but because of my several trips in the winter to the mountains i need something better.
Continental wintercontact ts 850 p 225/40 r18 will be my choice up comin winter .
I hope my opinion will help somebody .

Had them for 3 years on a Subaru Outback 2.5i. I've rated the tire in comparison to the level of grip any road legal tire can have, not in comparison to other winter tires.
Dry grip is good for a winter tire with good braking and cornering, but nothing compares to summer tires on a dry surface even in cold.
After 3 winters they have a lot of thread left, became a bit stiff, but I'm sure they can still handle well.
Handled snow like it was on rails in combination with the AWD system and would progressively start to slide only if accelerator was abused.
Wet & cold is where it suffers. It starts to understeer more than in snow and braking is not good either, so if you live in a place where winter = cold rains, I would not recommend. If you have snow, they will do really well. Even drove in a freezing rain when it was recorded the highest number of accidents and managed to get out safe even if it would slip while trying to start moving.
Noise was acceptable.

Covered about 20,000 miles on these and they still have loads of tread left. I have had them all continuously through winter and summer alike.
Quieter than the OEM Dunlops although a 5-10% penalty at the pumps.

Had these on the Alfa Romeo Brera V6 Q4 since September last year ... in normal conditions they perform well, good in the wet and dry, now we have had some proper winter conditions here in the UK and I have been driving in the snow for the last few days, and I must say they are exemplary... yes the car has 4wd, but a 2wd car in the snow on winters is better than a 4wd on summers in the snow! The grip is very good and confidence inspiring... able to brake down hill on packed snow (car weights 1.8 tons too!) able to climb any hill I'm presented with , generally feel fantastic compared to most of the other people tip toeing around and sliding about.... thoroughly recommended, and a decent price!

Fitted these Falken HS 449 2 years ago to my Subaru and very impressed all round. Great in the dry, very good in the wet and completely capable in heavy snow. A tough tire that I use all year round. Very recommendable.

Having read so many positive feedbacks I left wondering if I drove the same tire.
It's not a bad tire but still it had vibrations above 130 km/h, and never felt a proper grip on snow and ice.
I've been driving along with two other similar fwd cars and I was the only one who didn't manage on snow/ice uphill (other two were with Michelin Alpin A4 and Goodyear UG9).
On the good side they are very good on dry and wet roads with very good wear resistance.
I replaced the front wheel set with Nokian WR D4 and honestly the Nokians performed worse on dry and wet. Still waiting for the snow though.

Tire very hard, lots of wheel spin even when pulling away from traffic lights moderately, quite a lot of road noise.

Lateral grip so-so, braking so-so, wear not great, not recommended without ESP.

They aren't terrible, just not that good. Good economy tires (around 100 euro per piece) but nothing more. Don't expect too much out of them.

Its awesome good at winter.
It can grip well even on ice, or iced snow, or deep snow, do difference. best wintertire ive ever owned.
Its a bit loud, but IMO its a common wintertire "feature".

This is the best tire you can get for real winter conditions for an affordable price.

Have driven for 11 years during harsh winters in Romania, but only had budget winter tires so far.

Since I've moved from a WRX to a more sedated family car which is a 2008 Outback, I wanted something above the low budget tires but didn't want to pay the price of a Conti or Goodyear or Bridgestone.

Price is really attactive for a brand like this. Everyone said the pattern is not good because it's not a V, but it bytes the snow and ice so well even at -20 as we've had these days.

But what I really like the most about them is how progressive they are and the level of control they give is incredible. The car slides so elegantly and can be stopped from a snow drift in a second with minimum input. If you don't get aggressive with the acceleration the car will just go and turn where you point the steering wheel.
They are not that good on fuel economy, can't say anything about wear yet, dry grip is really good beating all season tires even, road feedback is fine and they are really confortable, though they can get a bit noisy on motorways.

I couldn't fault these winter tires, they're proper cold rubber, quiet, very good grip and at the same time safe on wet, dry and snow covered roads. On the downside I found them not great on fuel economy probably due to quite soft rubber compound but nothing drastic here. I've just ordered a new set for a 3rd winter in a row. I would recommend them to anyone.

I use the tires about 8 month in 2 years. I saw all weather conditions, wet, snow, ice... It's still very good at -20 C

I was not waiting this good tires at this price!